Philippeville, today known as Skikda, is a Mediterranean port city in northeastern Algeria, between the Collo Kabylia Mountains to the west and the Wadi Safsaf to the east. The site was inhabited in both Punic and Roman times, when it was known as Rusicade. Following the French conquest, The town was founded in 1837 by Sylvane-Charles Valée (1773–1846) to serve as the port of Constantine. In 1842, a man named Assus, probably a naturalized French citizen, was made the president of the Jewish community. He served until 1849, when the Jewish Consistory of Const…